What’s your ‘food policy’ in your home?

[Candlealmond]

Is it kitchen only for food or do you allow snacks in living room/dining rooms?

I usually enjoy having a lovely bowl of soup on the sofa after a lovely long walk but I’m about to get a brand new light colour sofa so thinking this might have to stop.

I also love taking my coffee up to my bedroom as I get ready in the morning but thinking with a white carpet i’m due to get soon and white vanity, this will be a thing of the past…

Is it really grotty to be eating/drinking in bedrooms and living rooms?

I live In a flat and can't eat in kitchen and and a front room and dining room combined.

Nice food like roasts etc at table, rest on lap on sofa and basically always breakfast in bed as bring my DC tea and toast on school days

No food upstairs. Meals at the table. Snacks allowed in the living room.
Occasionally we’ll have a meal like pizza while watching a film.

We eat most meals at table (except pizza!) but snacks allowed anywhere in the house.

DS(4) is only allowed water in the living-room as he often spills his drinks. We have tea/coffee there and upstairs if we feel like it. Breakfast in bed sometimes at the weekend.

But it's ludicrous asking our eating policy as we don't have light-coloured sofas/white carpets ! If we did, we'd be entirely different people and have a 'food only in the kitchen' policy with an exception for tea/coffee for guests who we'd watch nervously the whole time. And white wine only.

I would get a more practical colour sofa and carpet rather than curtail activities I loved dong.

There are no rooms in my house I don't eat or drink in 😂

The 3yo is only allowed food/drink in the kitchen, preferably at the table. We also abide by this when he is watching (except tea/coffee in the playroom because I can't drive imaginary vehicles for hours without tea).

When he is asleep, we eat chocolate/crisps/takeaway/alcohol on the lounge.

When

We just got a new sofa so there's no eating on that while its so fresh but we have a couple of other chairs that are fine.
I'm not sure why but whenever we have a Chinese takeaway we eat it in the living room.

Kitchen table
Dining room table

That’s your options here

I’m fairly militant about it
But we also eat together every night without fail - there really five of us so just don’t want the extra mess

In the holidays I let me kids eat cereal in front of the telly

Kids eat only in the kitchen exceptions made for popcorn for a movie etc. They are messy though and I’d Hoover after to save it being trod into carpet. Adults eat where they like but clean after themselves.

Breakfast is usually on the hoof anywhere downstairs unless we have company or it's a birthday etc when it's in the dining room. Evening meals in the dining room and lunch often in the kitchen.

No food or drink upstairs, except water.

Messy foods and meals must be eaten at the kitchen table. Only tidy snacks and water in the living room.

We do now allow food and drink in the office upstairs since WFH, but not in bedrooms.

Dc not allowed to eat anywhere but kitchen except occasional snack food in front if tv, nothing sloppy or staining.

Dh and I eat where we like but by and large at the kitchen table.

We do have coffee upstairs but we have easy cleanable old oak floorboards and don't throw it around (although if we had white carpet I'm not sure I'd take the risk!)

We only eat at the dining table. I don't really get the eating on the sofa thing - doesn't seem very comfortable.

I do take tea and coffee upstairs but mostly because I work from a room upstairs - when I was in the office, I didn't

No food upstairs at all.
Only water carafes beside the beds for drinks upstairs.
If you are deathly ill then maybe you can eat in bed but nobody has been sick enough to qualify since we moved in over a decade ago.

Downstairs have your drink wherever you want.
Snacks wherever you want except none at the computer (or the keyboard doubles in weight due to crumbs).
Meals at the table.

Food must be eaten sitting down but for snacks that can be at the table or on the sofa. We don’t have a table in the kitchen so most eating is in the lounge/diner. Occasionally snacks are allowed in the spare room/play room but we’re not often there at those times. Adults have drinks upstairs usually while working and DS has water.

We have an open plan kitchen/diner/snug with wooden floors and blankets over the couch so can eat/drink whatever in there. No food or drink is allowed in our living room apart from special occasions.

Food is allowed anywhere in the house except if you're sitting on the new sofa. Actually now I think about it the 'new' sofa is several years old, but that rule has stuck!

We are good at eating as a family around the kitchen table for most meals, but I'm relaxed about the teen DC having a bowl of cereal or whatever in their bedrooms. DH and I don't eat or drink in our bedroom, but that's a personal choice rather than a house rule.

Meals only at the dining table or on trays on the living room sofa occasionally (weirdly, not anything like soup). We have hot/cold drinks in the living room and kitchen.

Probably sounds weird but we do not have food allowed at all upstairs / in bedrooms (I even hate the concept of breakfast in bed!). Glasses of water are fine at our bedsides but that's it. If we want to curl up with a mug of coffee/tea and a book/paper at the weekend, we do so on the sofa.

We generally eat anywhere downstairs so kitchen, dining room or living room, and drinks anywhere in the house. Can I ask why you have gone for such impractical furniture/carpet choices? Seems a bit strange to me to actively make your house less comfortable!

We eat all meals at the kitchen table or dining room table (not becaus it's a rule, just because it wouldn't occur to us not to tbh), but snacks and drinks are allowed anywhere. We have hard floors throughout though, and dark brown leather sofas. Pale carpets and sofas sound like an utterly bonkers idea to me!

I have a cream carpet and have coffee in my room. I don’t have kids though and I think that’s the issue! If you can do it then they will and they may not be as careful as you!

My parents had white carpet throughout our house when I was about 15. I am the eldest, & we had a dog. It was not their brightest decision, especially in a country with indoor/outdoor living (not U.K.).

Any 'rules/policy' applies to children. We're adult homeowners, we eat/drink where we please as we're the ones who clean up any spills/marks & pay for anything & everything.

I wouldn't let children eat, say a curry, in the lounge, but carpet picnics/pizza is ok with picnic rug/kids at coffee table.

Drinks depends on age/ability not to spill them.

Throws if eating on the sofa makes sense, but I'd only get white if no kids & adults don't like to eat/drink on the sofa. I like things to look nice, love white, but not at the cost of feeling like I can't live in my own home.

No food in bedrooms , though tea , coffee acceptable , and we all take a glass of water to drink at night up there as well
Downstairs , anywhere really , trays for sitting room
It’s only DH and I at home now though , both DC grown up ( though both were back for Christmas) but same rules apply

DC aren't allowed to eat upstairs. I eat my breakfast upstairs after they've gone to school as I do it at my desk. We often eat snacks and lunches in the living room but try to eat in the dining room as much as possible, mainly to limit mess.